It is the 2012 Christmas season, yet many of my fellow Americans are not feeling the usual joy that has historically come with this time of year when we not only celebrate the birth of Christ, but celebrate a time to spend with friends and family. Instead, I sense there is almost a feeling of despair and desperation in the air.

Christmas itself and our right to celebrate it are under attack by those who want to strip America of our traditions and our values. In addition, millions of Americans are unemployed, and even many of those who do have jobs face an uncertain future. Regardless of what happens with the so-called “fiscal cliff” the hidden taxes in Obamacare will kick in on January 1, 2013 and people will see their take home pay decrease while their insurance premiums and cost of health care take a huge jump.

At the same time, thousands of new onerous and unnecessary regulations are being imposed on American businesses by the Obama administration that are going to result in increases in the prices of everything from food to energy and the loss of even more jobs. Small businesses are in the cross hairs of the Obama campaign to bring the American economy to its knees and everyone is afraid except for those who are looking forward to more “free stuff” from our new “Lord and Savior” as actor Jamie Foxx refers to our President.

The New Year will also see massive cuts to our military even as the Obama foreign policy of coddling our enemies is leading to rapid growth of Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other radical Islamic groups who have vowed to destroy Western civilization. In fact, the Obama administration’s latest move to “protect” America in a politically correct manner is have the military issue a new 75 page manual to the members of the military prohibiting our troops from saying anything that might be offensive to the Taliban or other Muslim extremists.

Many Americans believe that we have lost our moral compass and committed national suicide by reelecting a President who will continue to take away our basic freedoms. That is clearly the goal of our Dictator in Chief, but all is not lost yet. There are still many true Americans out there and we need to take heart from some of our past Christmases when all seemed lost.

In December 1777 General George Washington led a bedraggled and apparently thoroughly beaten Continental Army into its winter camp in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. There were only 12,000 men left in the army at that point and many left bloody footprints in the snow as they marched since they had no shoes. They also had little food, ammunition, and adequate clothing or blankets. That Christmas of 1777 was spent trying to construct enough shelters to keep them from freezing to death.

The outcome seemed inevitable; the promise of a new nation, free from British oppression, that had been born just seventeen months earlier by the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was not to be. As the winter got worse 2500 members of the meager army succumbed to various diseases, yet the rest continued to drill and train and they refused to give up. They emerged in the spring as a fighting force that would always be outnumbered and out gunned, yet they would fight for five more years and against all odds ultimately prevail.

Now fast forward to another Christmas season in Europe in 1944. The Nazis had launched a surprise offensive in the Ardennes in Belgium, overrun and virtually destroyed several American infantry divisions and trapped the 101st Airborne Division in the small town of Bastogne. The town was where several key roads merged and if it fell there was nothing to stop the Germans from dividing the Allied armies and prolonging WW II indefinitely.

The American paratroopers were outnumbered and running out of food, ammunition, and medical supplies, yet they refused to surrender and they stopped the Nazi offensive. When the Germans failed to take Bastogne they tried to bypass it shortly after Christmas and they found a gap in the U.S. lines. SS troops surged through it at night and after a fierce fight in the village of Sadzot overran Company B of the 87th Chemical Mortar Battalion killing, wounding or capturing half of the company and taking all of the 4.2 mortars.

The surviving Mortarmen, including my father 1st LT Roy Connelly, regrouped and with the help of a small contingent of stranded paratroopers and combat engineers they took back the town and their mortars. Then they held off the Nazi armored battalion for three days until relieved. There are countless stories like this throughout our history and they should give us comfort and hope.

We can’t give up and the people in Washington D.C. who think that they have a green light to subjugate us should remember that the United States is not a democracy and was never meant to be. Our founding fathers knew that a democracy could become a vehicle for a small majority of people to vote to deny basic human rights to everyone else.

In a Republic this can’t happen because the rights of all individuals are protected by law and in our case that Law is the Constitution. If any effort is made to take away those rights than we have a right and a duty to resist, and that is what we must do at every level. We must fight tyranny in our school boards, our city councils, state legislatures, in congress, and in the courts. Whether it is the tyranny of UN Agenda 21, gun control, denying us our religious freedom, or invading our privacy we can and will resist.

Christmas has always been a time of hope and this year must be no different. We must start off the New Year by redoubling our effort to take back our country. God Bless America and Merry Christmas.

Michael,
I look forward to your articles - and as busy as this world has become, you are still standing up and doing the best you can to inform us of our rights. You are admired for your honesty, your dedication and loyalty. May God bless you. Our country needs people like you. Growing up in the 1930's during the depression, our people stood together, prayed together, helped each other...it is so strange to try and understand why anyone would want to destroy this wonderful country of ours. I will not begin to explain how we are feeling with Christmas another week away. Or how we are feeling watching the destruction of everything we worked so hard for - of keeping our families together, helping those who are laid off with little money to buy gas to continue looking for work, buying food and helping to pay the rent for them when it is all we can do to make the social security to stretch to pay our own bills. May God help us all, to wake up those in the government that could help in the American Way instead of forcing more and more people on the "entitlements". Sorry to have taken so much of your time, I can understand the strain and workload you must be under but you are doing a fantastic job and hope you will continue sending the articles for the good of our country.
Merry Christmas and God Bless America.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you also, Michael. Even when I was ill I kept up on your posts and your positive, "Can Do!" attitude helped keep my spirits up. I'm better now & back into the fray. See you on the battlefield.

IT WILL BE A NOT SO MERRY CHRISTMAS FOR
MANY OF US AFTER THE 6NOV ELECTION !! I AM
AMAZED AT THE GREED AND STUPIDITY OF SO
MANY VOTERS. I TRULY BELIEVE THAT OBAMA
IS THE ANTICHRIST OR HIS MINION.
IN THE PAST I WROTE TO YOU ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF IMPEACHING THIS MUSLIM AMERICA HATER. YOU SAID IN REPLY THAT HE HAD COMMITTED NO IMPEACHABLE ACTS. I SEE IN YOUR RECENT BLOG A LIST OF IMPEACHABLE ACTS.
NOW, THE BIG QUESTION. HOW DO WE, THE MINORITY VOTER, GET CONGRESS TO START THE PROCESS? I WROTE MY SENATOR, VITTER, YESTERDAY AND ASKED HIM IF HE HAD THE BALLS TO START THE PROCESS. IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THOSE WHO OPPOSE HIM ARE DEATHLY AFRAID OF HIM. I AM NOW AFRAID OF MY GOVERNMENT AND WHAT IT'S BECOMING.
MICHAEL, WE, YOUR READERS AND FOLLOWERS, LOOK TO YOU FOR GUIDANCE. WE AND AMERICA HAVE GOT TO STOP OBAMA BEFORE HE RUINS OUR COUNTRY ANY FURTHER. GOD HELP US WHEN HE STARTS APPOINTING SUPREME COURT JUSTICES.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL